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Jonathan Kuminga hasn’t played a minute in the Warriors’ last 12 games. He becomes trade-eligible in the middle of an eight-game home stretch on January 15. His name is powering the NBA trade rumor mill, his role has vanished, and the Warriors are quietly preparing for life without him.
And yet, scattered among the 18,000 fans filing into Chase Center on Wednesday night, a few fans still proudly donned the talented 23-year-old’s jersey.
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These are the Kuminga Truthers, and they aren’t budging in their devotion.
“I’m always hoping that he’s going to be playing,” said Loren Harris, a Warriors fan since the ‘80s, who wore a recently purchased white Kuminga No. 1 jersey to the game against the Milwaukee Bucks this week. “I thought this would be his breakout year, and unfortunately, we haven’t seen it yet.”
Harris pointed to Kuminga’s development over the past few seasons — the flashes of growth, the athletic upside that felt undeniable. That belief hasn’t fully evaporated.
“I still have hope. I believe there’s always a chance. I would like to think of it more positively,” he said. “He’s a surprise weapon that we’re going to bring out in the playoffs.”
Loren Harris was convinced this season would be Kuminga’s breakout year.
The wing was once viewed as the bridge between the Steph Curry era and whatever unthinkable era comes next for the Warriors. The 2021 seventh overall pick was drafted as a long-term bet: his elite athleticism, defensive versatility, and two-way value could eventually help carry the franchise forward once Golden State’s core dynasty players aged out.
Instead, his fifth season has become a disappointing holding pattern, and the Golden State Shops around Chase Center offer a quiet confirmation.
After a summer of dramatic and stalled contract negotiations, Kuminga changed his jersey number from 00 to 1 for a “new start.” Not long after, his jersey disappeared from store displays. A store employee said the deliberate filing away of Kuminga’s jersey took place during the offseason, just as uncertainty about his future in Golden State became harder to ignore.
Since the start of the season in October, only five custom Kuminga jerseys have been made, according to a store employee, who declined to provide a name because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. “I don’t like selling someone a jersey that they aren’t going to be playing or be here,” said the employee.
Every other Warriors player’s jersey hangs in the store. Kuminga’s does not.
Which makes the couple that do appear in the crowd stand out even more.
Blue and white Golden State Warriors basketball jerseys with player names and numbers hang on racks in a sports merchandise store.
A jersey for Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga cannot be found at stores around Chase Center. |Source: Amber Pietz/The Standard
“When he first came in, we were really excited,” said Cheri Fairbrother, a Warriors fan since 1995, rocking a vintage Kuminga 00 jersey, paired with matching Kuminga socks. “Up until these last couple months, he’s been an integral part of the team. I will still wear his jersey.”
She described a player she still believes fits the Warriors’ plans. “He has a good basketball acumen. He gets where he needs to be on the court, his defense is good, his shooting — when it’s on, it’s really on. And he meshed well with the team.”
Fairbother said she trusts the organization’s decision-making and avoids second-guessing the Warriors front office. Still, the possibility of seeing Kuminga traded as soon as this week is difficult to accept.
“It hurts me, I’d like him to stay,” she said. “The relationship that he’s built with Jimmy Butler has been fabulous to watch, and I’d like to see that continue to grow. If he was playing, I think we’d still be doing well.”
“To keep him would be my best case,” she added.
That sentiment isn’t easy to find inside Chase Center, but online, Kuminga’s most vocal supporters are far more visible — and far less forgiving.
A woman wearing Golden State Warriors gear smiles widely while sitting with one leg raised among a seated crowd at a basketball game.
Cheri Fairbrother wears her Kuminga jersey and socks during a game at Chase Center on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. |Source: Amber Pietz/The Standard
“I feel awful. [Steve Kerr] never even tried to play Kuminga alongside three wings over these past four years,” said Armando Lara-Millan, a Warriors fan of more than 30 years from Oakland.
A supporter from day one, Lara-Millan still owns Kuminga’s NBA G League Ignite jersey from before the wing was drafted and regularly posts to his defense on social media. To him, the frustration goes beyond recent decisions about the rotation.
“I haven’t accepted that attaching future first round picks to an asset our own coach distressed will make our team irrelevant for years to come,” he said on the prospect of an upcoming trade deal and the Warriors’ impending transition out of the dynastic era.
Inside the locker room, Kuminga’s absence from the rotation hasn’t translated into any bad blood with his teammates. The players make that clear, and Butler was direct when asked about him.
“I could care less if he’s out of the rotation,” Butler said. “That’s my friend. That’s my brother. That’s not going to change. Basketball is basketball.”
Draymond Green also pushed back on any suggestion that Kuminga is disengaged on a recent episode of his podcast, sharing a story of Kuminga coaching Brandin Podziemski through the frustration of playing in short spurts.
A basketball player in a black Golden State Warriors jersey with the number 1 stands with hands on hips, smiling during a game.
Kuminga has averaged 11.8 points in 18 games this season. |Source: Kelley L Cox/Associated Press
“If people try to say, ‘Ah, man he’s moping,’ no, no, no … whatever happens at the trade deadline, if Jonathan Kuminga’s moved, whoever gets Jonathan Kuminga, that’s the guy you’re getting,” Green said.
For fans like Lara-Millan, Kuminga’s exit would be the final outcome of years of mismanagement. One that he says should prompt a broader reckoning with the coaching staff.
Others are beginning to make peace with what comes next.
“I just want us to do right by the team,” Harris said. “I look at it differently in that way.”